Barcelona’s Ousmane Dembele vows to return stronger next season

France manager Didier Deschamps praises Ousmane Dembele for his goal against Italy and highlights his ‘interesting’ link-up play with Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappe.

Ousmane Dembele admits his first season at Barcelona was tough but says he will prove his quality at Camp Nou next season.

Dembele joined Barca for €105 million from Borussia Dortmund last summer, which was a club-record transfer at the time, but his role in Spain has been limited due to injury problems.

Making just his third appearance for his new club, he ruptured a tendon in his hamstring in a league game against Getafe in September, leaving him sidelined for four months. Another hamstring problem KO’d him for a further four weeks when he eventually returned to fitness in January.

“[It was] a season with a lot of injuries,” Dembele told L’Equipe when asked to describe his first year at Barca. “It has been difficult. In spite of everything, though, I still have faith and the faith of everyone else. We’ll see what happens after that.”